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The Dursleys

The
Dursleys

Once
again, this belongs to J.K. Rowling. Unfortunately, I am not the genius behind
Sirius Black or any of the other characters mentioned here.

Sirius looked at
the parchment and then up at the house he was standing in front of. Yep. This
was the place. He could tell by the tidiness of the exterior that this was not
going to be a pleasant visit. He grimaced as he hoisted Harry,who was
trying to squirm out of his arms.

His suspicions were
confirmed as a rather beefy man with a thick mustache and no neck burst from
the house and made a beeline for him. He was followed by a thin woman with
pale blond hair, a long face, and an even longer neck. The woman he had seen
many times before with her parents in King’s Cross when they went to fetch
Lily. He slowly let out a breath and just hoped that he wouldn’t say something
stupid for a change.

“I demand to know
who you are and what business you have here,” the man said in a quiet voice,
so asnot to cause a scene.

“I’m Sirius
Black,” he answered cordially, if a little stiffly, “I need to speak to Vernon
and Petunia Dursley.”

“I’m Vernon
Dursley,” the mananswered gruffly, “And I’d like for you to leave my
property.”

“I’m afraid I
can’t do that. I have some very important information that I have been
instructed to give you, no matter what,” Sirius replied coolly.

“I’ll not take
that tone from a young hooligan such as you. I am not intimidated by you and
your motorbike.”

What was with this
man? Siriuswasn’t THAT much younger than he was. Sirius almost wished
Hagrid was with him. Now THAT would take the air out of the overblown windbag.
He could see he was going to have to be a little more forceful. He couldn’t
just wave a wand in broad daylight in a VERY Muggle neighbourhood. He was going
to have to fight smarter, not harder.

“Fine,” he said,
“But don’t be too surprised when people in hooded cloaks come to your house
just because you refused to listen to me.”

Sirius turned his
back,pretending to walk away. Harry had squirmed around and was now
looking back over his shoulder. Sirius held on tightly so that Harrydidn't
lean too far over and topple onto the concrete.

“Wait,” the woman
said, “Please come in.”

It wasn’t the
nicest invitation he could have received, but it would do. He turned back
around and followed the sullen couple into their house, which was way too tidy
to be normal. He didn’t know which was more disturbing; his family home at
Number 12 Grimmauld Place or Number 4 Privet Drive.

Sirius turned to
Harry and made a face, which made the boy laugh. He was getting annoyed and he
hadn’t even been there for five minutes yet. These were Harry’s only living
relatives, the poor boy. No wonder James had never liked them. He quickly
pushed James out of his head, though it was pretty difficult. He didn’t know
how many times that morning he had thought, “I’ll just Floo James and see if he
knows” and then realized he would never see James again.

Sirius wasn’t
offered a seat, but sat down on the couch anyway, completely ignoring the
scowls he was receiving. He sat Harry in his lap and remembered his
instructions. Since he had no choice, Sirius was to be civil. Dumbledore
wanted to send Harry to these people for good, and though Siriusunderstood
his reasons, there was no way in hell Sirius would let him live here, so
Dumbledore had decided to compromise.

“Since it seems we
have no choice but to listen to you, what do you want?” Vernon barked.

“To inform you
that your sister, Lily and her husband, James were…” he began. He had to clear
the lump from his throat before he finished that sentence. Petunia’s
expression changed from snarky to grim within seconds. Vernon, however still
wore a scowl.

“It was bound to
happen to them,” he said, almost sounding satisfied, “I knew it.”

“Quiet, Vernon,”
Petunia whispered. He and Sirius both looked at her, befuddled. She
just looked up at Sirius and snapped, “And?”

He looked down at
Harry and said, “This is their son, Harry. He managed to survive the attack
because of Lily, who died protecting him.”

“If you are asking
us to take him, then you have come to the wrong place,” Vernon barked.

“Don’t worry. I
wouldn’t dream of it,” Sirius said icily, “I’m his godfather,so he’ll
be with me most of the time. However, he must be allowed to come visit.”

“That is your
call, but let me explain the consequences. You see, since Lily’s blood was
spilled to save Harry, he is always protected by her blood. You, Mrs. Dursley,
are the last one that shares her blood. If he is able to come here, no one
will be able to touch him. That protection will also cover your own family.”

Vernon Dursley
looked like he was ready to explode while Petunia absentmindedly held on to her
screaming brat. He looked down at Harry, who was giving him a rather quizzical
look as he sucked his thumb. He just smiled at the boy, who grinned back,
revealing new teeth.

Finally, Petunia
broke the silence.

“What about the
person responsible for this? Has he been arrested?”

Sirius winced.
Truthfully, he wasn’t entirely sure what had happened and he knew that there
were things that he couldn’t tell them.

“No one is sure.
He actually attacked Harry, but when he did, something unexpected happened and
it…damn, I don’t know what happened. It didn’t kill him, but he no longer has
power.”

Petunia looked
scandalized that he had just used a swear word in front of her child and
covered his ears.

“If he no longer
has power, then why should we worry?” Vernon asked.

“Because he still
has plenty of supporters out there would love to kill Harry and this would most
likely be the first place they would look. If you don’t agree, your family
will be vulnerable to attack.”

“So how is he able
to stay with you and not be in danger?” he persisted. It was becoming quite an
annoyance.

“Because I have
cast a spell on the both of us called the Fidelius Charm. Only I can tell
Harry’s location and I don’t really care for being attacked. But in case
something DOES happen to me, he will have to stay here. For right now, this
arrangement is also for you, as well as him,” he answered. As open-minded as
he was about Muggles, he didn’t quite see why he should be doing them any
favors.

“Is that the same
spell that was cast to keep my sister hidden from the madman?”

Sirius sucked in a
breath, feeling almost like he had been punched in the stomach. Lily must have
said something in a letter. Apparently Petuniashe was a lot more
insightful than he had given her credit for.

“Yes, that was the
same spell,” Siriusanswered uncomfortably.

“Weren’t you the
only one who could tell what’s his face?” Petunia probed.

Sirius clenched
his fists. He hadn’t planned on talking about this because it made him want to
do bad things to a certain Wormtail,as well as kick himself in the arse
for being so stupid. However, he now had Harry to worry about and had been
ordered by Dumbledore not to go looking for Pettigrew.

“Originally, that
was the plan, yes. Plans changed and I thought that we could divert attention
by letting someone else being the Secret-Keeper. It would have worked had I
known that the person I switched with was a spy for the nutter out to kill
them.”

The Dursleys were
eyeing him very suspiciously, but he tried to keep his cool. They could think
what they wanted for all he cared- it wasn’t like he had warm fuzzy feelings
for them, either.

Sirius suppressed
a grin as he said, “Don’t worry. He won’t know that he’s a wizard until he’s
old enough. I intend on raising him outside of the Wizarding community. He
won’t turn anything into frog spawn.”

After a long
silence, Petunia said, “Fine. He is allowed to visit.” Vernon gave her an
incredulous look, but she just shot a very firm one back at him. That was the
final decision.

Sirius nodded and
got up. Harry had fallen asleep during the exchange. That kid sure did sleep
a lot. Siriuswas careful not to wake him.

“Thank you.
You’ll hear from me before I bring him over and don’t worry. It won’t be very
often,” he said as he walked out the door.

That went about as
was expected, maybe better. He hadn't had to use less orthodox methods of
persuasion or even raise his voice. Perhaps Petunia wasn’t as bad as James had
said, even though he had definitely met more pleasant people. But she didn’t
hold a candle to her husband. He felt really bad for Harry.

He placed his
sleeping godson in the rucksack Hagrid had given him to keep Harry in while on
the motorbike. He was glad Harry was asleep because soon Sirius would have to
stop flying the bike.Just this once, he wanted to fly before he
couldn’t anymore. Plus, Sirius wanted to get away from this place as quickly
as possible. He pulled out of the driveway and drove until the city lights
began to fade and houses became more distant. After that, he took to the
skies, under the cover of night and clouds, heading to their flat overlooking
Muggle London.

A/N: Yep, a
new fic. I am out of my mind, I know but I really am enjoying this one.
Thanks to my ROXIN beta, Wombat, for the vote of confidence on this one, since
I had my worries about an AU; to my writers’ group, moonette, MFF, Lell, starbuckx,
Gabriella du Sult and, Wendelin; to prplhez8 for the encouragement. You guys
all ROX.

//

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